Dear CUES Members,
After I retired from the Army following 27 years as an enlisted man, cadet and officer, I never imagined I would find a career at CUES that would be filled with as much sat
isfaction and emotional highs.
With heartfelt thanks for the confidence placed in me by the Board of Directors, I will close my 23-year career with the Credit Union Executives Society as its president and CEO on Dec. 31, 2012. I believe everyone has some time in mind at which they want to retire. For many of us, economic reversals may have contributed to recalculation of “our time.” For me, however, that time was age 70, so long as I could continue to perform at an acceptable level.
I am proud beyond words at what we have been able to accomplish since I came to CUES in 1989. Even as the number of credit unions have decreased greatly and continues to contract, our membership numbers have more than doubled and our revenues have tripled. In accomplishing this, we have remained true to our mission: “to educate and develop credit union CEOs, directors and future leaders.”
As a board member for six years of a small federal credit union while a faculty and staff member at the U.S. Military Academy, I gained an enormous understanding of the importance of continuing education and how that could improve not only the professional development of the staff but, as importantly, the governance of the credit union.
So, when I joined CUES, these became my foci. We established the three-year CEO Institute in 1995 at The Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, followed in 1996 by Johnson at Cornell University, and in 1997 by The Darden School of Business, University of Virginia. In 2000, we moved from Berkeley to The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania where it continues today. CEO Institute has graduated 530 attendees, a number of which we are all proud.
The importance of governance has grown given the hyper-regulatory environment facing today’s credit unions. CUES has the largest group of directors in the movement and has stepped up our commitment here with Directors Leadership Institutes held in such important educational venues as Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.; London Business School, London, England; and the IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain. Our current Directors Leadership Institute focuses on governance and is taught by the experts at Rotman Business School, University of Toronto. In advance of NCUA’s admonition for financial literacy among board members, we created CUES' Center for Credit Union Board Excellence in concert with BoardSource and Rotman. Each lesson plan, online course, video and piece of published information is designed to raise the bar for credit union volunteer performance.
Naturally, professional development as a taxonomy has evolved. Face-to-face conferences still have an appropriate role in executive education that cannot be underestimated, but online delivery has grown and CUES has been up front and timely, offering superior pedagogy for a variety of everyday staff skills and needs.
I am so proud of CUES' accomplishments that there's no way I can list them all. Some specific highlights for me as a leader include CUES receiving the World Council of Credit Unions’ Distinguished Service Award, being named a recipient of the Pete Crear Lifetime Achievement Award bestowed by the African American Credit Union Coalition, and serving in an advisory capacity on the Filene Research Institute Board.
I’m particularly looking forward to new partnerships with the Caribbean Confederation of Credit Unions and the League of Southeastern Credit Unions to offer collaboratively-delivered education in my final year at CUES, and many, many more come to mind.
The goal has always been the same: professionals delivering great professional development for a variety of staff positions – CEO to teller; plus great service; and CUES’ famous follow-through.
After leading soldiers in combat, I thought there could be no greater professional achievement. Yet, waking up every day in a selfless industry with dedicated people who constantly strive to help people all over the world achieve financial independence is life’s true reward.
Warm regards,
Fred Johnson
President/CEO
CUES
